As Hillary Clinton attempts to retire ’08 campaign debt, she could look to Castro brothers for help

Early last week, former President Bill Clinton sent out another fundraising email. This time on behalf of his wife, Hillary.

“There is nothing I enjoy more than good conversation with good people, which is why I’ve enjoyed it so much whenever we’ve brought one of Hillary’s strongest supporters to New York to spend the day with me — and I’m happy to tell you that I’ve asked to do it again,” he wrote.

The current Secretary of State is not launching a new campaign, and has consistently insisted that she will not be seeking the nomination to be the Democratic presidential nominee in 2016. The email from her husband is part of the effort to finally retire her campaign debt from 2008.

According to POLITICO, as of September 30th, this debt still totals $73,000.

If Bill Clinton’s efforts to retire his wife’s debt do not pan out, Hillary Clinton should definitely reach out the the Castro brothers, who in 2008 were a staunch Clinton supporters.

Julián Castro might have delivered the keynote speech at President Barack Obama’s 2012 Democratic National Convention, but prior to being announced as the keynote speaker on July 31, he had not supported Obama financially in 2012. In fact, his first contribution to Obama’s re-election campaign was made on Sept.21, four days after Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News began to make inquiries into this matter.

The San Antonio mayor who basked in the national spotlight at the convention and his brother Joaquin both supported other Democratic presidential candidates in the 2008 Democratic primaries, with the mayor only making a joint fundraising contribution to Obama just days before the 2008 election. According to the FEC filings, the Castro brothers made the following donations during the 2008 election cycle:

As evident by the donations, both Castro brothers donated funds to help retire Clinton’s campaign debt on Oct. 10, 2008.

Besides the $500 donation made on Sept. 21 of this year, so far this election cycle, the only other donations made by the Castro family were made to Joaquin Castro’s campaign for the District 20 congressional seat being vacated by Rep. Charlie Gonzalez. FEC records show that on July 5, Julián Castro and his wife Erica gave $5,000 each to his brother’s campaign.

Joaquin Castro did not donate to the Obama campaign this election cycle.

When asked for comment earlier this year on Mayor Castro’s contribution to the campaign, Adam Fetcher, an Obama for America campaign spokesperson, said, “We appreciate the tireless efforts of our volunteers, including key national surrogates, who are dedicated to getting the President re-elected and make a variety of valuable contributions day in and day out on behalf of the campaign.”

Castro is not the only surrogate who has taken on a major role in the Obama’s campaign without financially supporting the president this time around. Kalpen Modi, also known as Kal Penn, donated to the campaign on number of occasions in 2007 and 2008, and has been selected to “host” the Democratic National Convention this year. Similarly to Castro, his first contribution of $501 to the campaign for this election cycle was made on Sept. 19, two days after our inquiry.

It has never been a requirement that the keynote speaker or a campaign surrogate – a role that Julián Castro has taken on since the convention – to make financial contribution to the campaign. Barack Obama, who was the keynote speaker at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, did not make a donation to John Kerry’s campaign when he was running for president. However, Obama also did not make financial contributions to Kerry’s opponents during the Democratic primary in 2004 as the Castros did in 2007.

“Like many Texans, Mayor Castro is also a longtime supporter of Bill and Hillary Clinton’s, and supported then-Senator Clinton’s candidacy in 2008 during the Democratic primaries,” said Mayor Castro’s campaign manager Christian Archer in September, noting that Castro was now fully dedicated to the Obama campaign.

“Mayor Castro is an enthusiastic supporter of President Obama and is committing his time, energy, and travels to reelecting the President and ensuring that families across San Antonio and Texas can give their children the opportunity to succeed that he believes is the American heritage,” he said.

“Surrogates play an intense role for a candidate,” explained Debbie LeHardy, a former GOP fundraiser. A high level surrogate can give the candidate an instant credibility with a specific group of voters. “It’s the political clout of the surrogate that matters,” she said.

According to Susan MacManus, a professor of political science at a University of South Florida, the surrogates need to appeal to demographic groups that the candidate seeks to attract. In this case, Castro brothers were helping President Obama with the Latino voters while Modi appealed to the youth vote demographic. And while it helps when the surrogates themselves have previously donated to the campaign, the average voters wouldn’t know whether that is the case or not.

The average voters might not know if the surrogates have donated, but it might be of interest to them as the surrogates fund-raise for the candidate. After Michelle Obama’s speech at the convention on Sept. 5, the Obama campaign sent out an email from Julián Castro soliciting donations for the campaign – a campaign to which at that time he might not have yet donated to himself.

The email read:

Friend –

Michelle Obama just stepped off stage — and, just, wow.

I’ll keep this quick:

We know what we’re up against — a mountain of outside spending and a campaign willing to do whatever it takes to beat President Obama and drag this country backward.

But no one on that convention floor is intimidated. We’re ready.

If you’re feeling the energy, too, pitch in $5 or more to keep the momentum going:

Such email donation solicitations as well as solicitation over the twitter were effectively employed by the Obama campaign during the convention. An email from Modi was also sent out on Sept. 8, encouraging voters to commit to vote and, in postscript, to donate.

“The visuals and the instantaneous [interaction] really appeals to political junkies and to the younger demographic,” explained MacManus.

With help of tools like email and Twitter as well as their surrogates, the Obama campaign surpassed their goal of reaching 700,000 grass roots donations during the week of the DNC.